They place a screen or two in the smoke stack to keep sparks from going up the stove pipe.

The basic idea is to take a stainless steel strainer or some other type of mesh and put it over the top of small wood stoves.

If your wood stove is small enough, your mesh strong enough and your pot small enough the mesh should hold the weight of your pot just fine. As is the case with my 4" wide hobo style stove with my Evernew 700 pot.

After spending several hours researching the right stainless steal mesh I realized I already had a stainless splatter screen in the cabinet like this one sold at walmart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lodge-11-Round-Splatter-Screen/15376794

A little finer then I think it needs to be but it should hold up fine. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Will report back on the matter.

Best of all it's not only extremely light weight but should easily roll up and nest in your pot (after you remove the unnecessary edges and trim it to size of course).

Should in fact be lighter then the two titanium stakes it'll be replacing, not to mention far more stable.

What's more this strainer may come in handy for other cooking purposes... like straining. ;) LOL.

What I'm trying to accomplish is a simple solution to make my wood stove more practical around my tarp setups. Ideally I'd like to be able to use it just fine under the tarp or potentially even in a floorless winter mid.

I believe your system could work, although the mesh is really dense to get a good draft and could be quickly blocked by soot. How about something less dense from the same department?:http://www.walmart.com/ip/Good-Cook-6-Strainer/14938571

MYOG wood stove with pipe is so difficult project I hope you are able to put together an easier system that would work too.

I have used a wood stove even in the vestibule of my tent, when it was too windy to cook outside. Tent didn't melt. There was LOTS of smoke inside though.